Tag Archives: power

We woke up and had our breakfast at the hotel as usual then we got on the buses in our designated groups to head straight from the hotel to our first activities. Depending on what groups each of us were in we visited the Semakau Landfill, an Incineration Plant, Marina Barrage and/or the New Water Desalination Plant.

Semakau landfill

We jumped on the bus for a half an hour bus ride before swapping to a boat for another forty minutes. We when arrived at the landfill we split into groups with one group going straight on the bus to tour around the landfill while the other group went into a room to watch a presentation on how the landfill works. Then the groups swapped over. The Semakau Landfill is located about 8 kilometers south of Singapore, situated amongst the southern islands. Two of these small, shallow islands have been joined together by a membrane providing two halves to the whole system. The incineration plants provide the landfill with rubbish that has been turned into ash and placed in the cells in the first part of the system. The waste from the incineration plant is transported by a barge to the island and then loaded onto tip trucks which fill the cells. As each cell is required, the seawater is pumped out and the cell is filled with incinerated rubbish and compacted.

Tuas South Incineration Plant – turning waste into power

Tuas South Incineration PlantThe Tuas South Incineration Plant is a “Waste to Power” Plant, which means that the waste from domestic and municipal sources is transported to the Plant and used as fuel for boiler that is used to create steam and turn a turbine to produce electrical power. The electricity produced is seven times the amount actually used in the plant, while the rest of the power is fed back into the grid. The incineration plant is a very modern and technological solution to waste disposal, using close circuit video cameras to monitor the waste arriving in trucks and lots of automated systems. However, the waste is not separated, so plastics, paper, metal and biodegradable waste are all dumped into the incineration and burnt at temperatures up to 850 degrees Celsius. This ensures that the waste is sterilized to remove any diseases.

Over the school holidays, Clear Solar have installed our 5.5kW solar photovoltaic system, consisting of 42 panels, inverter and a ‘Sunny WebBox’ meter. The WebBox allows us to monitor the energy produced in real time, daily totals and the total produced since installation on a webpage linked to the system. Eventually we will also be able to veiw graphs showing the school’s power usage and the variable effects of weather on the system output, as well as comparing the system at Hawkesdale with other installations worldwide. Funding for the $60,000 system has been provided by grants from the National Solar Schools and the Victorian Solar in Schools Programs.